


The lost and found

by JusticeBanana



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Werewolves Are Known, Fluff, Happy Ending, Less grumpy Derek, Lost Stiles, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, The Hale Family (Teen Wolf) Lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-19
Updated: 2019-12-19
Packaged: 2021-02-26 15:40:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21860569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JusticeBanana/pseuds/JusticeBanana
Summary: Derek just wants a quiet night on the porch. But then he has to go rescue the man constantly getting lost in the woods. Again.
Relationships: Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski
Comments: 6
Kudos: 139
Collections: The Sterek Secret Santa - Edition 2019





	The lost and found

**Author's Note:**

  * For [nerderek](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nerderek/gifts).



> Happy Holidays!   
> This was a hard one but I think i did alright. I truly hope you are pleased with your gift and that its somewhat what you wanted.   
> I went for cute. I hope it is.
> 
> Yours,   
> JB

There he was. _Again._

Derek could smell him, sense him among the trees. He grumbled as he rose from the chair on the porch. The woods rustling and the wind howling between the treetops. Never a calm minute and it always, always happened on his fucking watch. Well, except that one time where Isaac had heard the moaning and whimpering instead. Needless to say, he had panicked and rushed into the Woods only to learn it was a common occurrence. So, Derek didn’t rush, he didn’t run. The boy would be there lost as always. Fucking humans. He just hoped he hadn’t sprained anything this time.

As per usual he took his time, a nice stroll letting his nose guide him to the offending smell of slight panic and cinnamon. He sat by a tree this time, his hair sticking up in any directions, a twig caught in the middle of it all.

"You got lost again" Derek started, he put his arms across his chest and tried to look a little bit intimidating.

"Lost is just a matter of perspective. I knew you would find me as usual so was I really lost?" the boy said between teeth clattering and his body shivering. Smart ass.

Derek sighed and let his arms fall down again. "You are still lost, if I leave you here, you will be lost". It was a matter of fact and Derek wanted to drive his point forward, all the way home.

"Always so grumpy, but thank you, I knew I could count on you to find me." the boy smiled, he had said his name the first time but Derek had forgotten because that was the only time he’d been worried out of his mind as the boy had been shivering out of his clothes. On his family territory. He didn’t dare ask for it again, because that would imply that he was interested in knowing more about the boy. He was but he sure as hell didn’t want the boy to know that.

"If you truly knew that you wouldn’t panic" Derek sighed. “And you are.”

"I plead the fifth." The boy smiled tiredly, and Derek sighed. _Again._

Then Derek asked what he would probably regret but during these multiple times this boy had been picked up by him an Isaac in these woods he hadn’t asked, and he was curious.

"Why are you even doing this time and time again? Do you like being lost in a forest with demons and ghouls and werewolves?” To drive that one home, he let his eyes shine an unnatural blue. The boy took a small step backwards but otherwise weren’t visibly put off. 

"One, its werewolves and pixies, possibly a shapeshifter or two. And secondly, I have my reasons, and it’s a nice bonus to have hot werewolves come pick you up when you fail. But my reason are mine alone". He shrugged as he walked past Derek. Hot werewolves. He shouldn’t be blushing, but he was.

Derek walked after him "Fine, but you do know this is technically private property and that you could just stop coming here and stop getting lost?” he grabbed the boys shoulder just as he were about to walk into a root and possible fall to his death. “And if you keep walking ahead of me, we will both be lost.”

The boy put his hands up in mock surrender but stepped behind Derek instead. "It’s your property but it’s also a preserve which means you have the rights to decide what the ground is used for and you choose to welcome the public. The fact that everyone is scared of werewolves, that’s you by the way, and stays away is inherently its own problem, but it doesn’t mean that when people stay away its because we don’t have access.”

“It’s because they are scared of us. We know. You’re not scared of wolves?” Derek looked at him and felt a deeper interest then earlier and inwardly groaned.

“Why would I be, you are not animals, you can contain yourselves just like me.” Derek stopped moving, that was a very progressive mindset. They had been public for years, but people tended to keep away from areas they knew wolves lived in for fear of getting killed. The boy continued, looking straight into Derek’s eyes. “I have access to a gun and is one hell of a shot but that doesn’t make me a killer. Having the weapon isn’t the problem its how its used. So put those claws away Mr. Sourwolf and lead me home.” He said as he pushed Derek in front of him. What an odd boy. But he did as he were told. He led him to the car, in silence. The boy talked on, mostly about his car, to which they were heading. He never. Shut. Up.

He waved goodbye as the car drove off this time, instead of fleeing as soon as the boy saw his car. Well man, he drove and apparently had a gun. Strange man. Now Derek couldn’t stop thinking about him. _Again_.

For two weeks all Derek could do was think about the man and the smell of cinnamon. And those moles. He didn’t want to be that sort of man who listened to his wolf all the time, he knew what damage it could do but when his wolf howled for him to grab the boy and kiss him. He had to fight that one. The look he gave Derek in the woods, going from frozen and wide-eyed to determined with that glint in his eye, that stubbornness. He couldn’t stop thinking about it. No matter what.

He had probably touched himself more than natural the last weeks and he still couldn’t get him out of his mind. And he’d tried so hard to remember his name. Miles? Stuart? _Steve?_

Even Isaac had picked up on something. And Cora. Laura and the others were away at college, Derek worked, and the two runts were still in high school. Isaac a year behind since his transformation and Cora were, as he and Laura used to put it: just tiny.

“What’s up doucheface. You smell awfully hormonal. Second coming of Christ or second cuming of the hour?” Cora laughed as she sniffed the air. He felt his cheeks redden and damn it. Nothing was holy anymore.

“You are disgusting!” Isaac shouted as he spit out his waffle.

Cora laughed “Well, he smells like he’s done nothing but looking at porn for days.”

“Do you need to be so blunt sweetheart?” Talia sighed as she came into the kitchen. “And Isaac honey, don’t spit out your food like that. You are not an animal, use a napkin.”

“Yes Ma’am.” He ducked his head as he picked up a napkin. Isaac had been with them for almost three years but were still a little bit scared of Talia sometimes. This was not really one of them, but he tended to keep on her good side. “Derek, I suppose you met someone new?” she continued, and her smirk looked an awful lot like Cora’s.

“Yeah Der-bear, who you been seeing.” She grinned from behind her waffle. “It’s either his right hand or maybe the left if he’s adventurous.” Cora said and let out a cackle at Isaacs face of disgust.

“I haven’t met anyone!” he grunted.

“Mhmm. And the pope isn’t wearing a funny hat.” Cora continued.

Isaac took a new timid bite of his next waffle. “Not when he sleeps, he doesn’t.” Then he looked like he figured out the mystery to the universe and Derek felt the rug move under his feet. Not literally, but the world shifted as Isaac took another sniff and decided that he knew. “It’s because of that dude getting lost in the woods all the time isn’t it?” When Derek’s cheeks turned a completely different shade pink he turned and walked out to Isaacs chanting of “I can’t believe it, I was right. No way”.

It took another week before Derek had the unfortune to bump into Miles? again. He had stripped out of his jeans and t-shirt, changing into his running shorts before sprinting out into the woods, leaving Cora and Isaac behind to get ready for school. He ran until everything ached. Until he fell into a pile on the moss and leaves.

He laid there for a while, listening to the birds, the trees and whatever else ran through the trees. Then he smelled it. The cinnamon and lightning. Was he around? Derek had never seen him in daylight before.

He rose slowly, still catching his breath, sniffing the air to find the way to the other man. He sat in a clearing, swearing over a piece of paper. A map Derek guessed.

“Getting lost during daytime now too?” he said as the other man jumped straight up with a yelp. “Not enough to get lost during the night no more?” It looked like the man were about to yell at him before he stuttered out something resembling a baby’s gaggle.

“Wuhu.” He looked Derek over from top to toe and his eyes burned like fire on his torso. “Damn. Sorry.”

“No problem, so Miles, what need you help with today? Finding the fountain of youth?”

“Ha. Ha. It’s Stiles actually. Not Miles.”

“What the hell is a Stiles?” Derek found himself asking, a wrinkle on his forehead.

“Me, I’m a Stiles. Or a Mischief. Up to you, big man.” He caught himself. “Uh, like you are big and broody and. Never mind.” He groaned and Derek chuckled.

“Hey sourwolf, you laughed!” He said and slapped him on the arm jokingly. “At me but whatever.”

“Not at you.” Derek said. “Maybe a little.” Stiles laughed at that before he winced as he stood.

“You okay?”

Stiles grunted “So, so. I sat down too long and now both my legs are sleeping.”

“How long have you been out here?”

“Well. You know how you usually come save me at night?”

Derek looked at him with suspicion. “I do. Go on.”

“Well this time it took a little while longer, you came now.” He said looking almost bashful.

“You have been out here all night?!” Derek growled

Stiles laughed a little but nodded. “Sure thing.”

Derek made a decision and said fuck it. Only his mother was home as of now. Before Stiles could move away Derek scooped him up with a yelp as Stiles nearly fell out of his grasp.

“Stop moving, you’re being carried not going swimming. Be still.” He said and Stiles just looked at him unimpressed.

“Is this a bad touch, because I should remind you of my gunshooting-capacity. Oh god I just touched your bare chest.”

“Is this okay?” Derek asked but he knew the answer. He hoped.

Stiles seemed to mull it over, but the glint of mischief never left his eyes. “Sure, thing Hottie McWerewolf. Just keep your hands of the merchandise.”

“The only bad touch here’s been was when you just now squeezed my pec. You are going to turn out to be a handful, aren’t you?”

Stiles just laughed “Me, did I? I think not. I was in distress I am not in control of my actions. It looked like it was a nice squeeze. I was _curious_.”

Derek shook his head and walked straight past Stiles jeep and kept walking towards the house.

“You always bring home strays?” Stiles asked as they got close to the porch.

Derek huffed out a laugh. “We have a tendency to, yes.” He sat him down on the porch and let Stiles in before him. As he watched stiles gape in awe at the sight of the foyer and the size of the house Derek got a shirt on and grabbed a few blankets from the couch.

“Come on” he said and guided Stiles into the kitchen. “Sit.” Stiles sat down obediently at the table and Derek handed him two blankets. Stiles must be cold.

“Okay so, wanna tell me why I am in your kitchen?” Stiles asked as Derek tried to find a decent pot that wasn’t in the sink to soak. He fond one and let a frying pan fall to its death with a clanging sound. He showed Stiles the pan and smiled.

“Hot cocoa of course.” He said. “Is that okay?” hoped Stiles didn’t feel cornered. What if he just accidentally kidnapped the man. Stiles seemed to have seen his internal battle.

“Man, I love hot chocolate! Of course, it’s fine. First, I get a first-class rescue, then a damsel carry, and lastly a mug of cocoa?” Stiles kept emphasizing everything with his hands. “You can keep me if you want.” He grinned and Derek felt a blush creeping on again. He just grunted and turned around.

“Derek, introduce me to our guest please.” His mother said sweetly from the door.

“Mom, this is the man who has _repeatedly_ gotten lost in the woods. Stiles this is my mother and Alpha, Talia.”

Stiles nodded and bared his throat a little, not enough for a human to notice but enough to calm a wolf who had a stranger in their closest territory. Derek never ceased to be amazed by how much Stiles knew.

“A pleasure Stiles. Tell me. What are you looking for out there? Regardless of what my other children say I find it unlikely that it is because you keep wanting to see my son.”

Stiles snorted. “No, you are correct, although it’s an amazing bonus.” He seemed to catch himself and realize what he said. “Uhm, I mean. I am looking for things that doesn’t like to be found.”

“Pixies?” Talia asked and sat down at the table.

“I...” Stiles hesitated, like if he told them he wouldn’t ever be able to find it. "I need to find the one place in this wood my mom wrote about before she died. She says she left something there. Literally or not I need to go there.” He sighed and rubbed his hands over his face. “But it can’t be found unless you are lost. So, I walk into the woods every now and then, hoping I will get lost enough that I will find it." he said in frustration and Derek knew then.

"You are looking for the nemeton." Derek said.

“Sweetheart, we are not just going to take a stranger to the centre of the paranormal occurrence in this town.” Talia said as if she knew exactly what Derek was thinking.

“The what now?” Stiles said as Derek placed a cup of cocoa in his hands. “It’s that big? I thought it would be something cool, like she found a cool magic pocket or something.

“This is the ‘or something’ part of that sweetheart.” Talia chuckled. “Do you know what she left?”

Stiles shook his head. “No idea. Could even be nothing, I loved treasure hunts as a kid, but I never really cared about the prize.” This would be interesting to follow.

After a little bit of awkward silence and a few cups of hot cocoa Derek saw Stiles eyelids begin to drop. He rose and Stiles looked up and mumbled out a soft “Wuhu.” Derek moved to pick him up and Stiles seemed to wake up a little.

“You need to sleep; you have been out in the woods the entire night.” Derek mumbled as Stiles yelped when Derek picked him up, swaddled in blankets.

“Okay caveman take me to bed!” he laughed then stopped abruptly and stuttered out an apology. Derek’s mother laughed from her study, hopefully far away that Stiles wouldn’t hear.

“That came out wrong, I didn’t like, you are hot and all but I, shit.” Stiles said in about two seconds flat. “Forget I ever said anything.” He groaned and Derek chuckled at that.

“Impossible, you never stop talking.” Derek said. “You see a complete stranger in the woods and when he takes you to your car because you get lost, you tell him the car doesn’t have a working lock on the doors or that it runs on duct tape. I could have used that to murder you or something. Isaac came back terrified you would someday die in these woods.”

“First, those were a lot of words, how are your throat. And second, I like to trust people, it also takes away the challenge from the murderers. Or something. I’m tired.”

Derek stopped outside his door. He didn’t know why he hadn’t moved to the spare bedroom, but he had been driven on autopilot by his wolf. And his wolf wanted this boy’s scent on his sheets. “Would you be uncomfortable in someone else’s bed?”

Stiles looked at the door. “Well, this is the start of a very sexy porno I once saw. So, I guess no? Just I want to actually sleep and keep my clothes on. I may also need to call my dad.” Stiles rambled. “Scratch that, I don’t want those two words in the same sentence. Dad and porno that is. Oh god damn I’m gonna shut up now, text my father and then sleep.”

Derek laughed again and it felt liberating. He could hear his mother chuckle warmly at the exchange. “I’m gonna let you do whatever.” He said and Stiles snorted.

“Yeah. I bet you would.” Derek didn’t want to dwell on that for too long, because he was absolutely certain that he would. He didn’t know why but if Stiles said jump, he would ask how high. He would go and dig him out of the forest every night if he had too. His wolf preened at the thought, but he just dumped Stiles on the bed. The man yelped as he hit the mattress but then dragged the pillows closer and started snoring in almost under a minute.

“Mom, I want to take him to the nemeton.” Derek said as he entered his mother study, leaving Stiles behind on his bed. Derek’s bed.

She looked at him and smiled. “Of course, you do. I’m not sure I entirely like it. The boy smells of magic but I trust your instincts love. He seems like a bright young man. He is staying for dinner I presume?”

“Thank you. I don’t know if he will stay for dinner.”

“Of course, he will, you are pulled together either way. I don’t believe he will be leaving us alone once you have showed him the way to the nemeton.” She said as it was a matter of fact.

Derek gaped at his mother. “Oh.” OH. Oh, no. He wasn’t sure he was ready to unpack the whole magic attraction and magic pull just yet but now it had manifested in his mind and his mother saw his panic.

“It’s not the end of the world Derek, there is a stronger attraction, not a coerced bond. Either you will be together for a while, you may have an amazing friendship, or it just won’t be anything. Like real life. It’s just a better match for whatever relationship it may be, a stronger connection. Its not written in stone. Stop panicking and trust whatever ancient magic created this phenomenon.” She said and squeezed his hand.

“But this soon?!” Derek hissed “He doesn’t even know me, I could still be a murderer, so could he to be honest!” Talia laughed.

“I doubt he is a vicious murderer considering how clumsy the boy is. You have felt attraction before I imagine, its no difference, just a stronger pull. Treat it like any other meeting of minds. Respect and consent Derek.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He said as she shooed him out the door. “Wait, what do you mean he smells like magic?”

Stiles woke as the door opened. His mind muddled with sleep and his body heavy and wrapped in blankets and covers. He was not moving. No sire. “No. Go away. I’m comfortable.”

Stiles herd a humming, peaked out from the covers and saw Derek and saw his lips curving into a tiny smile. “Don’t want to go find the mystery of the nemeton?”

Stiles shot up out of bed. He kind of thought he were still dreaming. Why would Derek be in his room. But he was the one in Derek’s room and he had slept in the woods tonight because he went looking for what apparently were called the nemeton. All he had ever known about it was the fact that his mother wrote. Namely that if he wanted to find the last thing, she’d be able to give him he would have to get lost. It wasn’t possible to find on a map, constantly moving. But he knew it would be in the woods. She told him as much in the letter.

They walked around in what Stiles thought of as circles before Derek just stopped by a cut down tree. When Stiles just looked lost Derek pointed at it.

“A tree trunk. Nothing more?”

“Well sure, but this tree trunk is the beacon of magic around here. The world today is built on leylines, natural lines of magic surge flowing through the earth. The nemeton is right on top of a crossroads of sorts. It gets its magic from two laylines crossing. It makes this city great for us wolves for example. Everything touched by magic feels at home here, its more natural and more in tune with nature.” Derek explained as he touched the treetrunk. “It’s a fixed spot, it isn’t actually moving but its also a source of unimaginable power for the wrong people, so it protects itself. If you go looking for it without stating intent it won’t show, it will stay hidden.”

“So why couldn’t I find it?” Stiles were frustrated but happy and it was hard to get a hold on what he thought and how he felt.

“You never stated your intent I guess, or it needed us to trust your intentions first. You also didn’t know what you were looking for. But it shouldn’t be easy to find. Most people say its only found when you stop looking for it while some say, like your mother, that you won’t find it if you know where you are. Both are technically true. It will only reveal itself for those deserving and those it trusts with its location. Hales have lived on these lands for hundreds of years. We go look for it as children and some find it sooner, and other later. First when it knows who’s on the lands it connects to us and lets us help protect it. Shows us where it is. It’s like it knows if we are to ever abuse that trust. My great grandfather never found it. The nemeton somehow knew he’d someday betray the trust in knowing its location, so it never revealed it.”

Stiles thought this over, what did that mean. He’d been careful, he never wanted harm, he just wanted to find what his mother sent him out to find. “You think I wouldn’t have found it, that it didn’t trust me?”

Derek shook his head. “I think that if you had known what you were looking for it would sense you and decide. But you didn’t know, how would it know you even looked? That it should reveal itself to you?”

Stiles shrugged. “Magic?”

“Fair point. I don’t know.” Derek admitted as he mulled it all over. “But I got to take you here, it trusts me.”

Stiles started pacing around the tree. “How does it know I won’t use it or shout its location from a rooftop.”

“Because, Stiles. You. Are _lost_.” Derek grinned and Stiles burst out laughing.

They sat by the tree for a while, Stiles deep in thought.

“I think she knew. Like this tree trunk just knows. It knows without seeing, without asking. I think it was somehow this way it was supposed to go, that it was you she meant. Like not specifically you. But I don’t think she were specific. I think she knew I’d find you here. She always seemed to know that sort of things. Like she saw things without being there. The woman could be putting me to bed and yell from my room for my father to put down the donut in the kitchen. And she was always right. She just knew.” He paused as if he mulled it all over. “I think I did too if I’m honest.”

Derek hummed in response. “I think there is something about that, not about me, but the nemeton. I think she wanted it to embrace you, not for you to stumble upon it and maybe miss it.” Derek said but Stiles were in a mode now, no amount of agreeing or disagreeing would stop his rant.

“She said I’d find something here, something that would remind me of her. That I would find her here. Her magic.” Stiles touched the tree now and as if jolted by a static shock he quickly removed his hand. “There is so much care here and I miss her everyday but, in these woods, I found her. Every time I came here, I was with her. Maybe that is all she ever meant even if I think there is more to it. I do think she knew, like your tree, that there was something more here for me. She just needed me to get here.” He kept touching the tree carefully, and every time Derek could see the faint electricity between the nemeton and Stiles.

“But I can have both right? I can have her, I can understand what made her so amazing, her connection to this tree. But I can get this, too right?” Stiles said and pointed to Derek and then to himself. “The care your family has shown. Someone who repeatedly finds me when I’m lost?” Stiles looked at Derek and continued: “Who I trust with my location?”

“Like the nemeton.” Derek said low. “Do you think she knew you’d meet us when she sent you to find the source of her magic?”

“Of course, she did. I’m certain. She always told me I’d find a man with big family and a heart of gold. She knew.”

“There is a possibility Stiles. I have never been so instantly drawn to someone, so pulled in and interested. I think you are my mate.” It felt weird on his tongue, like a coercion of sorts, but it also felt right, like he knew, like his wolf knew, that Derek would never use it as a weapon. That it was nothing more than a deep attraction, a sort of glimpse of a loving future.

“I know” Stiles said and smiled, Derek never asked how. But that spark between the nemeton and Stiles did something and it was almost like Stiles could take one step out in the woods and get to the nemeton, like all laws of physics never applied to him when he sought out the tree. Wherever he stepped the tree would appear and whenever Stiles needed an answer, he’d get it. As well as that creepy know it all look, he had sometimes. Like when Derek tried to sneak an extra donut from the box. In some way, even though Derek had ever met Claudia, he just knew that Stiles mother had led him directly to the source of her powers, directly to exactly what she promised. She left him her gifts. And Derek were terrified of them.

The nemeton started to bloom again a few years after, a tiny sprout on the surface of the cut down tree. And Stiles kept coming around, no longer getting lost. But Derek were there, to find him if he ever did.

Always.

  



End file.
